Page 3 of 3 FirstFirst 123
Results 41 to 54 of 54

Thread: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

  1. #41
    Senior Member dneal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Posts
    6,005
    Thanks
    2,409
    Thanked 2,283 Times in 1,307 Posts
    Rep Power
    18

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    Your confusion revolves around your interpretation of my statement you quoted. None of this seems consistent with your stated desire to discuss lived experiences.

    I can meditate anytime, to include while responding to you. You only seem to know the words, reciting them and other’s interpretations of them. You jab with banal statements that “everything is only theoretical”. It’s the contemplation of the theoretical that leads to understanding.
    "A truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged."

  2. #42
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    6,658
    Thanks
    2,027
    Thanked 2,189 Times in 1,419 Posts
    Rep Power
    18

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    Quote Originally Posted by Empty_of_Clouds View Post
    Tay would no doubt say that caring for your foster dog is your daily practice.
    This reminds me of a poem....

  3. The Following User Says Thank You to TSherbs For This Useful Post:

    Empty_of_Clouds (December 3rd, 2022)

  4. #43
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    6,658
    Thanks
    2,027
    Thanked 2,189 Times in 1,419 Posts
    Rep Power
    18

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.


  5. #44
    Senior Member dneal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Posts
    6,005
    Thanks
    2,409
    Thanked 2,283 Times in 1,307 Posts
    Rep Power
    18

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    Quote Originally Posted by Empty_of_Clouds View Post
    So much for:

    Quote Originally Posted by dneal View Post
    I'm not interested in perpetuating the dysfunction anymore.
    Perhaps you should describe your lived experiences of the practice of meditation instead of simply pointing people to textbooks. Because that was the thrust of this thread, and one you have repeatedly side-stepped in favour of deflecting to the works of others.
    You are derailing your own thread with these sorts of comments, but if that’s what you want… enjoy.
    "A truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged."

  6. #45
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
    Location
    US
    Posts
    6,797
    Thanks
    642
    Thanked 898 Times in 690 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    Wow, you dudes.

  7. #46
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2019
    Location
    US
    Posts
    6,797
    Thanks
    642
    Thanked 898 Times in 690 Posts
    Rep Power
    11

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    I tried to meditate, but fell asleep.

  8. The Following User Says Thank You to Chuck Naill For This Useful Post:

    Empty_of_Clouds (December 3rd, 2022)

  9. #47
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    6,658
    Thanks
    2,027
    Thanked 2,189 Times in 1,419 Posts
    Rep Power
    18

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    I actually tried this, this past week, for the first time. Really helped me! I worked in some gestures, also, to give me some movement.

  10. The Following User Says Thank You to TSherbs For This Useful Post:

    Empty_of_Clouds (December 3rd, 2022)

  11. #48
    Senior Member dneal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Posts
    6,005
    Thanks
    2,409
    Thanked 2,283 Times in 1,307 Posts
    Rep Power
    18

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    Quote Originally Posted by Empty_of_Clouds View Post
    No, it's only dneal up to his usual tricks. I actually want to hear about people's personal experiences with meditation. It's kind of a big ask for dneal it seems.
    I know a lot of people who deal with different levels of PTSD. I have a buddy who was an infantry company commander in Fallujah. He's fucked up, because he feels responsible for every soldier that died during that year. I keep in touch with a lot of the "kids" that made up our security details while advising in Afghanistan. They're in their 30's now, married and have young kids. It makes me happy to see them happy and successful.

    One was our medic, who also did a lot of driving duties. He was a good kid that suffered a lot from an accident he wasn't even aware of. A guy on a city-bike tried to squeeze in between a concrete barrier and the back of an armored vehicle. The tire pulled him under and killed him. The kid driving was completely unaware it even happened. It wasn't his fault, but that really messed with him. I remember distinctly how he broke down crying when he found out it happened.

    I'm interested in psychology. I think most pharmacological answers are only helpful in the immediate and short term. "Mindfulness" and meditation are the big things the Army and VA implemented in treatment of PTSD. I checked out the app offered by the VA, and the guided meditations, to see how my friends are being treated. I'm familiar with Buddhism, Taoism, Stoicism, etc... "Meditation" means a lot of things to me, not just listening to a bell chime and sitting upright feeling your feelz (not that there's anything wrong with that). I learned being in the present from Heraclitus, Marcus Aurelius, and Daniel Hoff (author of The Tao of Pooh); among many others.

    Meditation is simply contemplation, for me. I do that all the time, essentially non-stop; even when I'm typing crap on here. I question everything, have developed a comprehensive world view, and continue to question. The unexamined live is not worth living, and all that. I examine everything, pretty much.

    I keep telling you, check John Vervaeke. He ties together much of what I've thought about, and I was thrilled to discover him last year. He noticed the same similarities I had, but he spend decades focusing on it as a lecturer on psychology, Buddhism, etc... Look at the title and/or content of his "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis" series:

    - Flow, metaphor and the axial revolution
    - Continuous cosmos and modern world grammar
    - Socrates and the quest for wisdom
    - Plato and the cave
    - Aristotle, Kant, and Evolution
    - Aristotle's world view and Erich Fromm
    - The Buddha and "mindfulness"
    - Insight
    - Consciousness
    - Higher states of consciousness

    I see you struggle here, quote buddhist teachings, but see the same negative attitudes and behavior. I have compassion for whatever it is that troubles you, but don't have to approve or accommodate it. TSherbs has a negative (and almost hostile) attitude toward religion. I get that, as someone raised in the Southern Baptist tradition, and as someone who discarded it as soon as I was old enough to say flatly I wasn't going to church. I see a lot of negativity in his posts too.

    Retirement is a pivotal moment in life. It literally kills people (see comments on Sergeants Major in the retirement thread). I examined my experience with it, and started that thread specifically for TSherbs in an effort to reach out. Trump, politics and all this other shit really isn't that important in the big picture.

    Brett Weinstein said something along the lines of "there's a religion shaped hole in society". It's a profound observation. It ties into Vervaeke's thesis of the "meaning crisis".
    Last edited by dneal; December 4th, 2022 at 05:47 AM. Reason: Correct “meataphor” to metaphor
    "A truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged."

  12. #49
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    3,118
    Thanks
    874
    Thanked 2,528 Times in 1,299 Posts
    Rep Power
    13

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    Quote Originally Posted by dneal View Post
    I see you struggle here, quote buddhist teachings, but see the same negative attitudes and behavior. I have compassion for whatever it is that troubles you, but don't have to approve or accommodate it.
    This is your problem right here. You start by assuming that I am struggling, that's a reach. You then imply that I can do nothing but quote others, that's a dismissal. Then you tie those together to validate your assumed perspective instead of listening to, respecting and trying understand the perspectives of others. Following this you make a statement about compassion that, given the mountain of shit you've shovelled at every participant here, you cannot possibly imagine that anyone would take as being sincere.

    As for Vervaeke, I was already familiar with his work from well before you even mentioned it. I find much of what he has written to be derivative not original. You will probably play the appeal to authority card on reading this because you have this weird idea that nobody else reads stuff, and if they do, they don't understand it like you do.

    In another thread I used the word mimophant, and you copy-pasted into a post of your own as I wagered to myself you would do, but I used the word deliberately because I read and understood much of Koestler's work back in the late 70s. I have spent most of my life reading through treatise on and around the subject area at hand. Whatever I have gotten out of this lifelong study plus my practices over the last three decades is a direct experience, not the kind of second-hand one you're shovelling up here. This thread was about personal experiences that extend from personal practice, not an invitation to tell stories about other people.
    Last edited by Empty_of_Clouds; December 3rd, 2022 at 08:30 PM.

  13. #50
    Senior Member dneal's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Posts
    6,005
    Thanks
    2,409
    Thanked 2,283 Times in 1,307 Posts
    Rep Power
    18

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    You're entitled to your viewpoint, and I'm entitled to mine. Apparently we see things differently, and will each act as we see fit.

    I don't necessarily post for you, or anyone else specifically (although sometimes I do). Lots of people read lots of stuff here, and sometimes I get "thanks" for posts from people who don't even post in this section regularly, if at all. I find that interesting.

    As for the rest of your post, I'm not really interested. I will reiterate to you that only you can redeem yourself in this forum, although that seems to fall on deaf ears. You're too busy calling everybody liars, which perhaps should prompt some reflection the next time you meditate.
    "A truth does not mind being questioned. A lie does not like being challenged."

  14. #51
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    6,658
    Thanks
    2,027
    Thanked 2,189 Times in 1,419 Posts
    Rep Power
    18

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    As I've already noted, I'm not much interested in reading (or listening) about Buddhism or meditation. The wordage gets in the way for me. The dharma talk I get each week, the lectio divina, and my own work is sufficient. The rest is up to me. I have, in the last ten years, read something like 20 different books on mystical practices from several faiths. Done for now, basically.

  15. #52
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    3,118
    Thanks
    874
    Thanked 2,528 Times in 1,299 Posts
    Rep Power
    13

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    I can relate to that.

    A few years back I lived in a different city in New Zealand. Shortly after I started a relationship with my now wife we attended the local temple, as one does. This temple was a modern building inside and out, not much at all like a traditional temple really. Anyway, after over an hour of chanting and prostrations we were privileged to have a dharma talk by a visiting highly respected Buddhist nun (a bhikkhuni). The talk was in Putonghua (Mandarin Chinese), and because my language skills were less developed at that time the temple priest gave me a radio headset through which I could listen to a live translation. While I don't recall precisely what the talk was about because I was a little overwhelmed by the occasion - vaguely remember it included a parable involving butterflies - one thing I recall as clear as day was that the nun took a seat at the front facing us all and, after the appropriate respects had been given but before she had uttered a word, she sat there and smiled. It was as if the room had suddenly lit up. A truly wonderful moment of sheer genuine joy. I was totally blown away. On thinking back on it I wonder if that is the feeling one gets during sudden transmission.

    I found books and so on provided a framework that was of great help when it came to practice. Everyone comes at these things from different angles. For a dharma teacher finding the angle that best suits a student is part of what is called skillful means. Something that books cannot provide in and of themselves except in rare cases.

  16. The Following User Says Thank You to Empty_of_Clouds For This Useful Post:

    TSherbs (December 4th, 2022)

  17. #53
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    6,658
    Thanks
    2,027
    Thanked 2,189 Times in 1,419 Posts
    Rep Power
    18

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    Thanks, EoC. I love words and letters and language so much that I have to hold them at arms length from time to time. There are certain things that I'll probably not read again in my life because they evoke in me such abandon and "drunkenness" that I just can't even read them. I wrote on some thread here that language is a double edged sword for me. I really mean it. Similarly, there is some art that I cannot stand in front of without losing my equilibrium. I literally will not look at it if I enter its museum room. Maybe some day again. Maybe not.
    Last edited by TSherbs; December 4th, 2022 at 05:45 AM.

  18. #54
    Senior Member Chip's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2021
    Location
    Wyoming
    Posts
    2,132
    Thanks
    98
    Thanked 1,079 Times in 632 Posts
    Rep Power
    6

    Default Re: The lived experiences of people who engage in meditational practices.

    My fascination with Buddhism began when I encountered haiku and grew after meeting Gary Snyder and hearing him read his poems and those of Han Shan.

    Being both tall and stiff in the legs, I can't sit in a lotus, nor even in a kneeling position for long, which makes standard meditation painful. Beyond that, temple practice is regimented, meals at certain times, group lectures, sitting in rows while the guy with the staff stalks your backside, to straighten you up or whack you for dozing.

    When I studied Japanese kempo (Shorin-ji) the sitting meditation was the part I liked least, suffering through to do the exercises, katas, and sparring. My best sort of meditative state occurs while walking long distances or rowing a boat: body in action, mind at rest.

    The art and literature inspired by Buddhism absorbs me more than the practice. I love the poems of Han Shan, Li Po, Tu Fu, T'ao Ch'ien, Hsi Chou, and Japanese poets such as Basho, Issa, Tanikawa and Takahashi. Studied Mandarin to get a sense of how ideographic poems work, and tried some translation: fun!

    Paintings and drawings fascinate me as well.

    Last edited by Chip; December 4th, 2022 at 03:45 PM.

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •